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Hey, could all you O's out there post your best brown-bag lunch ideas? I'm going back to school on Monday to finish my degree and don't know yet if there might be any microwave ovens I could use in the Student Center, so it may just be brown-bag lunches 5 days a week. (Wish I could've gotten a MWF or TR schedule, but that was not to be.)

Thanks,

Cheri in Texas

Posted by: Lloyd, Thursday, August 23, 2007, 10:22pm; Reply: 1

A number of items can be cooked ahead and eaten cold, like a nice (rare!) roast, sliced thin for finger-food (or wrap in sushi paper). Fruit and nuts are easy, as are many salads. Some veggie dishes (cooked) work cold as well, you may need to experiment.

In fact, that's a good idea in general. Experiment to see what you like and what works.

Posted by: Brighid45, Thursday, August 23, 2007, 10:46pm; Reply: 2

First off--if you don't already have them, get a really good sturdy lunchbox or lunchbag, and a high-quality thermos. (Some of us swear by our stainless steel thermos--absolutely the best thing for hot drinks and soup or stew. In fact a SS thermos keeps things so hot you have to let the liquid cool down!) They will pay for themselves many times over by staying in one piece through all sorts of abuse.

If you want a more 'traditional' sandwich lunch, try leftover pot roast, lamb or turkey on ezekiel bread with some romaine lettuce, mayo and mustard. Add a small bag of sweet potato chips if you like, some fruit or trail mix and something to drink--green tea, rooibos tea, sparkling mineral water--and you're in good shape. Unibars are great to take along too in case you get hungry in the mid-morning or afternoon.

If you want something for cold weather, homemade soup or stew is really delicious. I take either one to work almost every day in the wintertime and love how filling my lunch is, as well as warming! Again, a wide-mouth thermos is a blessing here. I often take two with me--one for the main course, the other for tea (since the tea-water at my workplace often tastes like coffee from the improperly cleaned carafes used). Take along some compliant crackers if you like.

A wide-mouth thermos will also let you take leftovers like meatballs in sauce, casseroles, and so on.

I often have Unibars, a bottle of water and some dried fruit or trail mix and chocolate squirreled away in case of emergencies.

Hope this helps :)

Posted by: Don, Thursday, August 23, 2007, 11:13pm; Reply: 3

My older son has started taking romaine leaves and sliced deli meat in separate bags and them wraps them at school. He also adds a little regular vinegar based mustard from the school supplies. I also saw him take a couple of spelt pretzels one day.

Not perfect, but it is better than the high school lunches.

I don't know if you will be able to get the condiments you want at the student center or not, but here is a source for the little packet and small serving items including 1/2 oz organic extra virgin olive oil

I found this elegant idea on a zone diet site (sent in by a regular person):chicken breast, poached or baked, sliced, chilledasparagus, grilled or steamed,cup of raspberriesmarinate all in appropriate vinagraitte for yr type (I would add a bit of agave to my dressing)carry to work in a tupperware type of thing with a fork.

Posted by: 296 (Guest), Sunday, August 26, 2007, 1:11am; Reply: 5

Great lunch ideas, everyone! :) Thank you for posting!

Brighid, I do have an old thermos, probably not stainless steel, but it should keep hot things hot and cold stuff cold. SS would be completely metal inside and out?....mine has blue plastic on the outside, and 2 little screw-on plastic cups that go over the screw-top vacuum-seal lid. I plan on keeping this one until it breaks or leaks. Oh, and I also have several decent quality lunchboxes and two really good reusable, washable freezer packs that fit inside the lunch boxes.

Lloyd, I *LOVE* the rare roast-beef with lettuce idea. But I can't think of any veggies I like cold, except for carrots and celery.

Don, once I get to the Whole Foods Market located near the university when I start classes next week, so I can get compliant mustard, I'll be set!!! Thanks for the EVOO packets tip. I'll check that out!

Jayneeo - that. sounds. so. good!!! Must try that out soon. Thanks!

Posted by: carmen, Monday, August 27, 2007, 3:22am; Reply: 6

Hi Cheri,you could try adding cold cooked veg to your romaine wrap or salad bowl - we like cold cooked green beans, zucchini(courgette, or squash), roast pumpkin or sweet potato & capsicum, beets, snowpeas. Add some shredded chicken or turkey, beef etc & keep it cold in your thermos or pack with iceblock in lunchbox. Compliant mayo and dukkah (ground nuts and spices) tops it off. Enough spice will cover a multitude of bland tasting veg! Add roast almond, sea salt, parsley, olives. Tamari (wheatfree soy sauce) and cooked hot or cold veg is a fave too. Boiled egg travels well, or foilwrap some omelette with greens etc. Fried onion is a good addition wherever. Find youself a tiny screwcap bottle to re-use (like from vanilla essence) and take your own salad dressing (evoo with lemonjuice, tamari, or mustard powder mixed in, chilli, garlic, etc). Save yourself time by using some dinner leftovers so you're not cooking in the morning when time is pressing.My A hubbie often takes a rye sandwich with allfruit jam and slice of mozarella, nut paste with honey, chicken sausage & lots of salad, nuts. It's lunchtime now so this is making me hungry!Take a piece of fruit too.

Posted by: 348 (Guest), Thursday, August 30, 2007, 1:25am; Reply: 7

I smear almond butter on rice cake, sandwich style. I like the roast idea. Can someone please post a method for cooking it?

Posted by: Lola, Thursday, August 30, 2007, 5:03am; Reply: 8

here s a recipeyou will find more in recibase, also check out Brighid s blogs...lots of cooking ideas and techniques.

Quoted Text

Beef Roast with Mushroom StuffingBlood TypesB,O

CategoryEntree

DescriptionThis is another recipe from Cheryl and friendly freezer onelist. It serves8 and requires no preparation time.

I love roaste bell peppers( caspicums) eaither pureed or in strips.I buy a lot of them during the high season and bake them and freeze them. In Denmark red peppers are horribel expensive from November to May and you can only get heavy sprayed spanish ones then. So I go crazy the rest of the year.

Posted by: 1408 (Guest), Friday, August 31, 2007, 6:33am; Reply: 13

Hi brighid45 mentioned Ezekiel bread. I've been able to find a bread called Ezekiel 4:9 is that the same thing?I'm a type O going through a little withdrawal from wheatbread and hoping this is an appropriate substitute.

Posted by: Don, Friday, August 31, 2007, 12:39pm; Reply: 14

Welcome O_North,

Yes, Ezekiel 4:9 from Food for Life is the name of the bread that is OK to use.

Posted by: Brighid45, Friday, August 31, 2007, 1:43pm; Reply: 15

Hi O_North, nice to meet you :)

As Don says, 'ezekiel' is short for Ezekiel 4:9. Imo, it's a good transition bread for people just starting the BTD. It's also nice for an occasional sandwich or for toast. I've also used it to make bread crumbs and stuffing.

If you don't like the Ezekiel 4:9 bread, try the hamburger buns. They are not as dry. However, there is TOO MUCH bun there for me. I end up standing a bun on end and slicing through each half once more, making 2 inner round pieces of bread for toasting or sandwiches and two outer pieces that look more like a hamburg bun, only thinner. I cut the whole bag of buns up this way and put them back in the bag then refrigerate.

Some of my favorite left-overs (even cold) are fish or Tamari dipped chicken breast pieces off the George Foreman. They could be eaten by themselves or cut up and added to a salad.

--Chinese snow peas--Broccoli (yes, raw) in small piece marinated in a compliant vinagirette-type dressing with a few other vegetables--eg raw carrots and onions + cooked green beans. The marinating "softens" the broccoli a bit and I actually prefer the taste raw over cooked!--Jicama (which I cannot get here in France)--Regular peas (if they are small and fresh), eaten right out of the pod --yummy--Endive leaves. They are "stiffer" than most types of salad and so you can crunch on them if you want, or even spread them with a compliant cheese spread. They offer fiber....

Other possibilities:Strips of red, yellow or green pepper

Carolyn (my first post) ESTJ, BloodType O, Enneagram Type 3

Posted by: koahiatamadl, Thursday, October 4, 2007, 7:41am; Reply: 24

Other stuff to eat raw- kohlrabi - sugar snap peas- fruit

Other ideas- trail mix (keep some at work/in your car for emergencies)- jerky (keep some at work/in your car for emergencies)- any left overs from the night before- all kinds of salads (both raw and cooked veg make nice salads!) with suitable protein source- smoothies - if you don't put dairy into them and don't let them sit in high temperatures (car in sun) they don't even need to go in the fridge/a thermos to store

Invest in a well sealing container for lunch unless you want leaks...

Posted by: Lola, Thursday, October 4, 2007, 3:49pm; Reply: 25

Caro, thanks for sharing!and bienvenue!!!

Posted by: cindyt, Saturday, October 6, 2007, 6:03pm; Reply: 26

A B friend told me recently that she figured out how to make meatloaf from ground turkey. I've been experimenting with a combination of ground turkey and ground grass fed beef, with chopped onions, mustard powder, salt and eggs. No bread crumbs, no ketchup. It comes out really good, not too dry. And it would be great cold with Ezechial bread or just with salad.

Posted by: Lola, Saturday, October 6, 2007, 6:26pm; Reply: 27

with that basic recipe you can make your own sausages! just add more paprika or other spice!!

Posted by: cindyt, Saturday, October 6, 2007, 9:49pm; Reply: 28

I make ground turkey thigh "burgers" with cumin and basil and they taste kind of like sausage. They might be good cold too.

Posted by: Lola, Saturday, October 6, 2007, 11:05pm; Reply: 29

I bet they would!

Posted by: drgnwng1, Monday, October 8, 2007, 2:15am; Reply: 30

I like turkey burgers with apple ,celery, white onion and poultry seasoning. They are very good cold or reheated.They cook up best on George.Jean

Posted by: Brighid45, Tuesday, October 9, 2007, 5:01pm; Reply: 31

The little grocery store where I shop most frequently has turkey breast on sale this week for .99/lb, the Shadybrook Farms brand. I bought some to freeze and roasted one in the slow cooker over the weekend. We had plenty of leftovers, so I made turkey salad--just your basic chicken salad recipe with turkey substituted for the chicken. It's delicious! I've been taking it to work with a baby spinach salad and curried walnuts on the side and fresh pears for dessert. My coworkers keep trying to snitch bites of my lunch! :) Anyway, if you've got leftover chicken or turkey meat, a cold salad is a good way to use it. You can either have it with greens or in a sandwich.

Posted by: 2854 (Guest), Tuesday, March 11, 2008, 7:59am; Reply: 32

I do pack bento boxes to work occasionally and usually leftover or food that I cook the night before, so in the morning, I just heat it up in the mircowave (if this is allowed) and bring it to work. If you keep the wet food separate and not mixing, the food will stay good until lunch time.